Percy Jackson reads the Sea of Monsters
by warriorprincess100
Summary: This is the sequel to 'Percy Jackson reads His Myth.' Join Percy, his friends and family, and the gods as they discover Percy's adventures!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N Hello again! Long time, no see… or read? I know I said there wouldn't be a new chapter until the 1st of June, but I decided to go ahead and post this! I am going to the beach next week, and I will only be able to post one or two times. Welcome to the Sea of Monsters!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters. All rights belong to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

"I'll read," Luke volunteered.

**"My best friend shops for a wedding dress," Luke read.**

**My nightmare started like this.**

"When do you not have nightmares?" Rachel asked.

"Ummm…" Percy thought. "I have no idea."

**I was standing on a deserted street in some little beach town. It was the middle of the night. A storm was blowing. Wind and rain ripped at the palm trees along the sidewalk. Pink and yellow stucco buildings lined the street, their windows boarded up. A block away, past a line of hibiscus bushes, the ocean churned.**

**_Florida_, I thought. Though I wasn't sure how I knew that. I'd never been to Florida.**

**Then I heard hooves clattering against the pavement. I turned and saw my friend Grover running for his life.**

Everyone looked at Grover as he blushed.

**Yeah, I said hooves.**

"Are you okay Percy?" Chris joked.

Apollo rushed over, and he put his hand on Percy's forehead.

"What are you doing?" Percy asked.

"Making sure you are okay," Apollo said as if that was obvious. Luke decided to continue to read before things got more awkward.

**Grover is a satyr. From the waist up, he looks like a typical gangly teenager with a peach-fuzz goatee and a bad case of acne. He walks with a strange limp, but unless you happen to catch him without his pants on (which I don't recommend), you'd never know there was anything un-human about him. Baggy jeans and fake feet hide the fact that he's got furry hindquarters and hooves.**

**Grover had been my best friend in sixth grade. He'd gone on this adventure with me and a girl named Annabeth to save the world, but I hadn't seen him since last July, when he set off alone on a dangerous quest-a quest no satyr had ever returned from.**

"Except for you," several people said. If it was possible, Grover blushed even redder.

**Anyway, in my dream, Grover was hauling goat tail, holding his human shoes in his hands the way he does when he needs to move fast. He clopped past the little tourist shops and surfboard rental places. The wind bent the palm trees almost to the ground.**

**Grover was terrified of something behind him. He must've just come from the beach. Wet sand was caked in his fur. He'd escaped from somewhere. He was trying to get away from … something.**

Those who fought the Cyclops shuddered. That was not a fun experience.

**A bone-rattling growl cut through the storm. Behind Grover, at the far end of the block, a shadowy figure loomed. It swatted aside a street lamp, which burst in a shower of sparks.**

**Grover stumbled, whimpering in fear. He muttered to himself, _Have to get away. Have to warn them!_**

"Warn who about what?" several campers and gods asked.

Percy mouthed something that the gods could not understand, and there was a wave of 'oh's' throughout the campfire.

**I couldn't see what was chasing him, but I could hear it muttering and cursing. The ground shook as it got closer. Grover dashed around a street corner and faltered. He'd run into a dead-end courtyard full of shops. No time to back up. The nearest door had been blown open by the storm. The sign above the darkened display window read: ST. AUGUSTINE BRIDAL BOUTIQUE.**

**Grover dashed inside. He dove behind a rack of wedding dresses.**

"My best friend shops for a wedding dress!" the Stoll brothers exclaimed.

Everyone just rolled their eyes at the brother's antics.

**The monster's shadow passed in front of the shop. I could smell the thing-a sickening combination of wet sheep wool and rotten meat and that weird sour body odor only monsters have, like a skunk that's been living off Mexican food.**

**Grover trembled behind the wedding dresses. The monster's shadow passed on.**

Everyone took in a breath.

**Silence except for the rain. Grover took a deep breath. Maybe the thing was gone.**

And some let it out.

**Then lightning flashed. The entire front of the store exploded, and a monstrous voice bellowed: "MIIIIINE!"**

Several campers jumped in shock even though they knew it was coming.

**I sat bolt upright, shivering in my bed.**

**There was no storm. No monster.**

**Morning sunlight filtered through my bedroom window.**

**I thought I saw a shadow flicker across the glass-a humanlike shape. But then there was a knock on my bedroom door—my mom called: "Percy, you're going to be late"—and the shadow at the window disappeared.**

**It must've been my imagination. A fifth-story window with a rickety old fire escape … there couldn't have been anyone out there.**

Percy leaned over to Annabeth and whispered, "How did you do that?"

"That's for me to know, and you to find out," Annabeth teased Percy.

**"Come on, dear," my mother called again. "Last day of school. You should be excited! You've almost made it.'"**

"Jinxed it," some people coughed. Sally blushed as Paul put his arm around her.

**"Coming," I managed.**

**I felt under my pillow. My fingers closed reassuringly around the ballpoint pen I always slept with. I brought it out, studied the Ancient Greek writing engraved on the side: Anaklusmos. Riptide.**

**I thought about uncapping it, but something held me back. I hadn't used Riptide for so long….**

Most campers and gods looked at Percy a disbelieving look. Percy answered back with a sheepish grin.

**Besides, my mom had made me promise not to use deadly weapons in the apartment after I'd swung a javelin the wrong way and taken out her china cabinet.**

"Did I apologize for that?" Percy asked his mom.

"I think you did, dear," Sally said.

"If I didn't, I'm sorry," Percy apologized.

**I put Anaklusmos on my nightstand and dragged myself out of bed.**

**I got dressed as quickly as I could. I tried not to think about my nightmare or monsters or the shadow at my window.**

**_Have to get away. Have to warn them!_**

**What had Grover meant?**

**I made a three-fingered claw over my heart and pushed outward-an ancient gesture Grover had once taught me for warding off evil.**

**The dream couldn't have been real.**

"Thanks a lot," Grover said. No one could tell if he was joking or not.

**Last day of school. My mom was right, I should have been excited. For the first time in my life, I'd almost made it an entire year without getting expelled. No weird accidents. No fights in the classroom. No teachers turning into monsters and trying to kill me with poisoned cafeteria food or exploding homework. Tomorrow, I'd be on my way to my favorite place in the world-Camp Half-Blood.**

**Only one more day to go. Surely even I couldn't mess that up. As usual, I didn't have a clue how wrong I was.**

**My mom made blue waffles and blue eggs for breakfast. She's funny that way, celebrating special occasions with blue food. I think it's her way of saying anything is possible. Percy can pass seventh grade. Waffles can be blue. Little miracles like that.**

**I ate at the kitchen table while my mom washed dishes. She was dressed in her work uniform-a starry blue skirt and a red-and-white striped blouse she wore to sell candy at Sweet on America. Her long brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail.**

The boys started drooling at the mention of candy. The girls rolled their eyes at them. The usual.

**The waffles tasted great, but I guess I wasn't digging in like I usually did. My mom looked over and frowned. "Percy, are you all right?"**

**"Yeah … fine."**

**But she could always tell when something was bothering me. She dried her hands and sat down across from me. "School, or …"**

**She didn't need to finish. I knew what she was asking.**

**"I think Grover's in trouble," I said, and I told her about my dream.**

**She pursed her lips. We didn't talk much about the other part of my life. We tried to live as normally as possible, but my mom knew all about Grover.**

**"I wouldn't be too worried, dear," she said. "Grover is a big satyr now. If there were a problem, I'm sure we would've heard from … from camp… ." Her shoulders tensed as she said the word camp.**

"What's wrong with camp?" Piper asked.

Everyone looked down as Luke said, "You'll see."

**"What is it?" I asked.**

**"Nothing," she said. "I'll tell you what. This afternoon we'll celebrate the end of school. I'll take you and Tyson to Rockefeller Center-to that skateboard shop you like."**

**Oh, man, that was tempting. We were always struggling with money. Between my mom's night classes and my private school tuition, we could never afford to do special stuff like shop for a skateboard. But something in her voice bothered me.**

**"Wait a minute," I said. "I thought we were packing me up for camp tonight."**

**She twisted her dishrag. "Ah, dear, about that… I got a message from Chiron last night."**

"It must've been something serious then," Nico said. He didn't notice the looks towards Thalia.

**My heart sank. Chiron was the activities director at Camp Half-Blood. He wouldn't contact us unless something serious was going on. "What did he say?"**

**"He thinks … it might not be safe for you to come to camp just yet. We might have to postpone."**

**"Postpone? Mom, how could it not be safe? I'm a half-blood! It's like the only safe place on earth for me!"**

"Usually it is," half the camp chanted.

**"Usually, dear. But with the problems they're having-"**

**"What problems?"**

**"Percy … I'm very, very sorry. I was hoping to talk to you about it this afternoon. I can't explain it all now. I'm not even sure Chiron can. Everything happened so suddenly."**

**My mind was reeling. How could I not go to camp? I wanted to ask a million questions, but just then the kitchen clock chimed the half-hour.**

**My mom looked almost relieved. "Seven-thirty, dear. You should go. Tyson will be waiting."**

Several people perked up at the mention of Tyson. Percy looked down as he remembered all of the stuff he thought about him.

**"But-"**

**"Percy, we'll talk this afternoon. Go on to school."**

**That was the last thing I wanted to do, but my mom had this fragile look in her eyes-a kind of warning, like if I pushed her too hard she'd start to cry. Besides, she was right about my friend Tyson. I had to meet him at the subway station on time or he'd get upset. He was scared of traveling underground alone.**

**I gathered up my stuff, but I stopped in the doorway. "Mom, this problem at camp. Does it… could it have anything to do with my dream about Grover?"**

**She wouldn't meet my eyes. "We'll talk this afternoon, dear. I'll explain … as much as I can."**

**Reluctantly, I told her good-bye. I jogged downstairs to catch the Number Two train.**

**I didn't know it at the time, but my mom and I would never get to have our afternoon talk.**

"Of course," Poseidon groaned.

**In fact, I wouldn't be seeing home for a long, long time.**

**As I stepped outside, I glanced at the brownstone building across the street. Just for a second I saw a dark shape in the morning sunlight-a human silhouette against the brick wall, a shadow that belonged to no one.**

"Or Nobody," Clarisse joked. Percy, Annabeth, and Clarisse all laughed while the other just looked confused.

**Then it rippled and vanished.**

"Done," Luke shouted.

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**A/N: I hope you liked it! I plan on adding another chapter on Monday and maybe Tuesday. I'm leaving for the beach on Wednesday and I'm not coming back till Sunday. I won't have my laptop with me so I can't work on this story :(**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey everyone! I can't believe I only posted one chapter and already have 11 reviews! You guys are amazing :) I will try to upload once more before Wednesday, but I am spending the next two days shopping and packing. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from PJO or HoO. All rights go to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

"Okay," Luke said as he finished. "Who would like to read now?"

"I would," Zoe volunteered. Luke passed her the book, and she began to read the next chapter.

**"I play dodgeball with cannibals,"** Zoe read.

Poseidon groaned. "Do you ever get a break?" He asked Percy.

Percy shook his head as he said, "Nope."

"I was afraid of that," Poseidon grumbled.

**My day started normal. Or as normal as it ever gets at Meriwether College Prep.**

Percy scoffed. That school was _far _from a college prep school.

**See, it's this "progressive" school in downtown Manhattan, which means we sit on beanbag chairs instead of at desks, and we don't get grades, and the teachers wear jeans and rock concert T-shirts to work.**

Athena grimaced in disgust, "They call that a school?"

**That's all cool with me. I mean, I'm ADHD and dyslexic, like most half-bloods, so I'd never done that great in regular schools even before they kicked me out. The only bad thing about Meriwether was that the teachers always looked on the bright side of things, and the kids weren't always … well, bright.**

"Nice, Perce," Nico said sarcastically.

**Take my first class today: English. The whole middle school had read this book called Lord of the Flies, where all these kids get marooned on an island and go psycho. So for our final exam, our teachers sent us into the break yard to spend an hour with no adult supervision to see what would happen. What happened was a massive wedgie contest between the seventh and eighth graders, two pebble fights, and a full-tackle basketball game. The school bully, Matt Sloan, led most of those activities.**

**Sloan wasn't big or strong, but he acted like he was. He had eyes like a pit bull, and shaggy black hair, and he always dressed in expensive but sloppy clothes, like he wanted everybody to see how little he cared about his family's money. One of his front teeth was chipped from the time he'd taken his daddy's Porsche for a joyride and run into a PLEASE SLOW DOWN FOR CHILDREN sign.**

Several people looked towards the book in disbelief.

"How stupid can this guy get?" Thalia asked.

"You have no idea," Percy replied.

**Anyway, Sloan was giving everybody wedgies until he made the mistake of trying it on my friend Tyson.**

Everyone who knew Tyson smiled. _This was going to be interesting, _most of them thought.

**Tyson was the only homeless kid at Meriwether College Prep. As near as my mom and I could figure, he'd been abandoned by his parents when he was very young, probably because he was so … different. He was six-foot-three and built like the Abominable Snowman, but he cried a lot and was scared of just about everything, including his own reflection. His face was kind of misshapen and brutal-looking. I couldn't tell you what color his eyes were, because I could never make myself look higher than his crooked teeth. His voice was deep, but he talked funny, like a much younger kid-I guess because he'd never gone to school before coming to Meriwether. He wore tattered jeans, grimy size-twenty sneakers, and a plaid flannel shirt with holes in it. He smelled like a New York City alleyway, because that's where he lived, in a cardboard refrigerator box off 72nd Street.**

"Poor Tyson," Katie said. Mostly everyone agreed except for Hera. She used all her strength to hold back a comment.

**Meriwether Prep had adopted him as a community service project so all the students could feel good about themselves. Unfortunately, most of them couldn't stand Tyson. Once they discovered he was a big softie, despite his massive strength and his scary looks, they made themselves feel good by picking on him. I was pretty much his only friend, which meant he was my only friend.**

**My mom had complained to the school a million times that they weren't doing enough to help him. She'd called social services, but nothing ever seemed to happen. The social workers claimed Tyson didn't exist. They swore up and down that they'd visited the alley we described and couldn't find him, though how you miss a giant kid living in a refrigerator box, I don't know.**

"The Mist," the Stolls, Nico, and Leo coughed.

**Anyway, Matt Sloan snuck up behind him and tried to give him a wedgie, and Tyson panicked. He swatted Sloan away a little too hard. Sloan flew fifteen feet and got tangled in the little kids' tire swing.**

**"You freak!" Sloan yelled. "Why don't you go back to your cardboard box!"**

"Why that little—" Rachel began.

**Tyson started sobbing. He sat down on the jungle gym so hard he bent the bar, and buried his head in his hands.**

**"Take it back, Sloan!" I shouted.**

**Sloan just sneered at me. "Why do you even bother, Jackson? You might have friends if you weren't always sticking up for that freak."**

"He's not a freak!" half the camp shouted. The flames turned a bright orange and became several feet high.

**I balled my fists. I hoped my face wasn't as red as it felt. "He's not a freak. He's just…"**

**I tried to think of the right thing to say, but Sloan wasn't listening. He and his big ugly friends were too busy laughing. I wondered if it were my imagination, or if Sloan had more goons hanging around him than usual. I was used to seeing him with two or three, but today he had like, half a dozen more, and I was pretty sure I'd never seen them before.**

**"Just wait till PE, Jackson," Sloan called. "You are so dead."**

"Thank the gods Nobody showed up," Percy joked. Grover, Annabeth, and Clarisse began laughing. (A/N I know I already had this joke, but I felt like I should have it again)

When the campers looked at them like they were insane, Percy just replied with, "It's an inside joked. Well, for now it is."

**When first period ended, our English teacher, Mr. de Milo, came outside to inspect the carnage. He pronounced that we'd understood Lord of the Flies perfectly. We all passed his course, and we should never, never grow up to be violent people. Matt Sloan nodded earnestly, then gave me a chip-toothed grin.**

**I had to promise to buy Tyson an extra peanut butter sandwich at lunch to get him to stop sobbing.**

**"I … I am a freak?" he asked me.**

**"No," I promised, gritting my teeth. "Matt Sloan is the freak."**

Nods were seen all around the camp.

**Tyson sniffled. "You are a good friend. Miss you next year if … if I can't …"**

**His voice trembled. I realized he didn't know if he'd be invited back next year for the community service project. I wondered if the headmaster had even bothered talking to him about it.**

**"Don't worry, big guy," I managed. "Everything's going to be fine."**

Artemis smiled. Percy Jackson was different from the other boys she has met.

**Tyson gave me such a grateful look I felt like a big liar. How could I promise a kid like him that anything would be fine?**

**Our next exam was science. Mrs. Tesla told us that we had to mix chemicals until we succeeded in making something explode, Tyson was my lab partner. His hands were way too big for the tiny vials we were supposed to use. He accidentally knocked a tray of chemicals off the counter and made an orange mushroom cloud in the trash can.**

**After Mrs. Tesla evacuated the lab and called the hazardous waste removal squad, she praised Tyson and me for being natural chemists. We were the first ones who'd ever aced her exam in under thirty seconds.**

"How is that an exam?" Athena asked in disgust.

**I was glad the morning went fast, because it kept me from thinking too much about my problems. I couldn't stand the idea that something might be wrong at camp. Even worse, I couldn't shake the memory of my bad dream. I had a terrible feeling that Grover was in danger.**

"Maybe because I was in danger," Grover said like it was obvious.

**In social studies, while we were drawing latitude/longitude maps, I opened my notebook and stared at the photo inside-my friend Annabeth on vacation in Washington, D.C. She was wearing jeans and a denim jacket over her orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. Her blond hair was pulled back in a bandanna. She was standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial with her arms crossed, looking extremely pleased with herself, like she'd personally designed the place. See, Annabeth wants to be an architect when she grows up, so she's always visiting famous monuments and stuff. She's weird that way.**

Annabeth was smiling throughout the paragraph, but then she began glaring at Percy.

"Sorry?" Percy said sheepishly.

**She'd e-mailed me the picture after spring break, and every once in a while I'd look at it just to remind myself she was real and Camp Half-Blood hadn't just been my imagination.**

**I wished Annabeth were here. She'd know what to make of my dream. I'd never admit it to her, but she was smarter than me,**

Annabeth's smile came back on her face.

**even if she was annoying sometimes.**

Then it morphed into a glare.

**I was about to close my notebook when Matt Sloan reached over and ripped the photo out of the rings.**

**"Hey!" I protested.**

**Sloan checked out the picture and his eyes got wide. "No way, Jackson. Who is that? She is not your-"**

**"Give it back!" My ears felt hot.**

Cue snickering around the campfire.

**Sloan handed the photo to his ugly buddies, who snickered and started ripping it up to make spit wads. They were new kids who must've been visiting, because they were all wearing those stupid HI! MY NAME IS: tags from the admissions office. They must've had a weird sense of humor, too, because they'd all filled in strange names like: MARROW SUCKER, SKULL EATER, and JOE BOB. No human beings had names like that.**

"That's because they're monsters," Thalia said.

The ones that were clueless said "ohhh".

**"These guys are moving here next year," Sloan bragged, like that was supposed to scare me. "I bet they can pay the tuition, too, unlike your retard friend."**

"He's not retarded!" the camp shouted.

**"He's not retarded." I had to try really, really hard not to punch Sloan in the face.**

**"You're such a loser, Jackson. Good thing I'm gonna put you out of your misery next period."**

"One hit and you are going to regret it," Poseidon growled. Those who sat close to him scooted away in fear. No one's seen him that angry before. No one.

**His huge buddies chewed up my photo. I wanted to pulverize them, but I was under strict orders from Chiron never to take my anger out on regular mortals, no matter how obnoxious they were. I had to save my fighting for monsters.**

**_Still_, part of me thought, _if Sloan only knew who I really was …_**

**The bell rang.**

**As Tyson and I were leaving class, a girl's voice whispered, "Percy!"**

**I looked around the locker area, but nobody was paying me any attention. Like any girl at Meriwether would ever be caught dead calling my name.**

**Before I had time to consider whether or not I'd been imagining things, a crowd of kids rushed for the gym, carrying Tyson and me along with them. It was time for PE. Our coach had promised us a free-for-all dodgeball game, and Matt Sloan had promised to kill me.**

**The gym uniform at Meriwether is sky blue shorts and tie-dyed T-shirts. Fortunately, we did most of our athletic stuff inside, so we didn't have to jog through Tribeca looking like a bunch of boot-camp hippie children.**

"Hippie children," Hermes and Apollo snickered along with everyone else.

**I changed as quickly as I could in the locker room because I didn't want to deal with Sloan. I was about to leave when Tyson called, "Percy?"**

**He hadn't changed yet. He was standing by the weight room door, clutching his gym clothes. "Will you … uh …"**

**"Oh. Yeah." I tried not to sound aggravated about it. "Yeah, sure, man."**

**Tyson ducked inside the weight room. I stood guard outside the door while he changed. I felt kind of awkward doing this, but he asked me to most days. I think it's because he's completely hairy and he's got weird scars on his back that I've never had the courage to ask him about.**

"Poor Tyson," several girls said.

**Anyway, I'd learned the hard way that if people teased Tyson while he was dressing out, he'd get upset and start ripping the doors off lockers.**

**When we got into the gym, Coach Nunley was sitting at his little desk reading Sports Illustrated. Nunley was about a million years old, with bifocals and no teeth and a greasy wave of gray hair. He reminded me of the Oracle at Camp Half-Blood-which was a shriveled-up mummy-except Coach Nunley moved a lot less and he never billowed green smoke. Well, at least not that I'd observed.**

**Matt Sloan said, "Coach, can I be captain?"**

Cue groaning.

**"Eh?" Coach Nunley looked up from his magazine. "Yeah," he mumbled. "Mm-hmm."**

**Sloan grinned and took charge of the picking. He made me the other team's captain, but it didn't matter who I picked, because all the jocks and the popular kids moved over to Sloan's side. So did the big group of visitors.**

**On my side I had Tyson, Corey Bailer the computer geek, Raj Mandali the calculus whiz, and a half dozen other kids who always got harassed by Sloan and his gang. Normally I would've been okay with just Tyson-he was worth half a team all by himself, but the visitors on Sloan's team were almost as tall and strong-looking as Tyson, and there were six of them.**

"Can your luck get any worse?" Poseidon asked.

"Surprisingly yes," Percy said.

"Stop it, Jackson," Hephaestus said, "or your father is going to have a heart attack."

**Matt Sloan spilled a cage full of balls in the middle of the gym.**

**"Scared," Tyson mumbled. "Smell funny."**

**I looked at him. "What smells funny?" Because I didn't figure he was talking about himself.**

**"Them." Tyson pointed at Sloan's new friends. "Smell funny."**

**The visitors were cracking their knuckles, eyeing us like it was slaughter time. I couldn't help wondering where they were from. Someplace where they fed kids raw meat and beat them with sticks.**

**Sloan blew the coach's whistle and the game began. Sloan's team ran for the center line. On my side, Raj Mandali yelled something in Urdu, probably "I have to go potty!" and ran for the exit. Corey Bailer tried to crawl behind the wall mat and hide. The rest of my team did their best not to cower in fear and not look like targets.**

**"Tyson," I said. "Let's g-"**

**A ball slammed into my gut. I sat down hard in the middle of the gym floor. The other team exploded in laughter.**

Poseidon growled, and the campers scooted even farther away. Yes, even Percy.

**My eyesight was fuzzy. I felt like I'd just gotten the Heimlich maneuver from a gorilla. I couldn't believe anybody could throw that hard.**

**Tyson yelled, "Percy, duck!"**

**I rolled as another dodgeball whistled past my ear at the speed of sound.**

**Whooom!**

**It hit the wall mat, and Corey Bailer yelped.**

**"Hey!" I yelled at Sloan's team. "You could kill somebody!"**

Face palms were heard throughout the camp.

"That's the point!" Thalia shouted.

**"I knew that in a few seconds," Percy defended himself.**

**The visitor named Joe Bob grinned at me evilly. Somehow, he looked a lot bigger now … even taller than Tyson. His biceps bulged beneath his T-shirt. "I hope so, Perseus Jackson! I hope so!"**

**The way he said my name sent a chill down my back. Nobody called me Perseus except those who knew my true identity. Friends … and enemies.**

**What had Tyson said? They smell funny.**

**Monsters.**

"Now you get it," Annabeth said.

"Better now than never," Percy said.

**All around Matt Sloan, the visitors were growing in size. They were no longer kids. They were eight-foot-tall giants with wild eyes, pointy teeth, and hairy arms tattooed with snakes and hula women and Valentine hearts.**

**Matt Sloan dropped his ball. "Whoa! You're not from Detroit! Who …"**

"Wow," Rachel said. "He is really slow." All of the campers agreed with her.

**The other kids on his team started screaming and backing toward the exit, but the giant named Marrow Sucker threw a ball with deadly accuracy. It streaked past Raj Mandali just as he was about to leave and hit the door, slamming it shut like magic. Raj and some of the other kids banged on it desperately but it wouldn't budge.**

**"Let them go!" I yelled at the giants.**

"That's not going to happen," Artemis said.

"I know," Percy said, "but I had to try."

**The one called Joe Bob growled at me. He had a tattoo on his biceps that said: JB luvs Babycakes. "And lose our tasty morsels? No, Son of the Sea God. We Laistrygonians aren't just playing for your death. We want lunch!"**

**He waved his hand and a new batch of dodgeballs appeared on the center line-but these balls weren't made of red rubber. They were bronze, the size of cannon balls, perforated like wiffle balls with fire bubbling out the holes. They must've been searing hot, but the giants picked them up with their bare hands.**

**"Coach!" I yelled.**

**Nunley looked up sleepily, but if he saw anything abnormal about the dodgeball game, he didn't let on. That's the problem with mortals. A magical force called the Mist obscures the true appearance of monsters and gods from their vision, so mortals tend to see only what they can understand. Maybe the coach saw a few eighth graders pounding the younger kids like usual. Maybe the other kids saw Matt Sloan's thugs getting ready to toss Molotov cocktails around. (It wouldn't have been the first time.) At any rate, I was pretty sure nobody else realized we were dealing with genuine man-eating bloodthirsty monsters.**

**"Yeah. Mm-hmm," Coach muttered. "Play nice."**

Everyone was getting really irritated by the coach now. How oblivious could someone get?

**And he went back to his magazine.**

**The giant named Skull Eater threw his ball. I dove aside as the fiery bronze comet sailed past my shoulder.**

**"Corey!" I screamed.**

**Tyson pulled him out from behind the exercise mat just as the ball exploded against it, blasting the mat to smoking shreds.**

**"Run!" I told my teammates. "The other exit!"**

**They ran for the locker room, but with another wave of Joe Bob's hand, that door also slammed shut.**

Cue groaning.

**"No one leaves unless you're out!" Joe Bob roared. "And you're not out until we eat you!"**

"Then no one's going to leave," surprisingly Clarisse said.

Everyone looked at her shocked and she said, "If he gets eaten, then I can't pulverize him."

The campers and gods all rolled their eyes, except for Ares. He just smiled in a maniac way.

**He launched his own fireball. My teammates scattered as it blasted a crater in the gym floor.**

**I reached for Riptide, which I always kept in my pocket, but then I realized I was wearing gym shorts. I had no pockets. Riptide was tucked in my jeans inside my gym locker. And the locker room door was sealed. I was completely defenseless.**

Poseidon groaned. "You do get your sword right?"

"You'll see," Percy replied.

**Another fireball came streaking toward me. Tyson pushed me out of the way, but the explosion still blew me head over heels. I found myself sprawled on the gym floor, dazed from smoke, my tie-dyed T-shirt peppered with sizzling holes. Just across the center line, two hungry giants were glaring down at me.**

**"Flesh!" they bellowed. "Hero flesh for lunch!" They both took aim.**

**"Percy needs help!" Tyson yelled, and he jumped in front of me just as they threw their balls.**

Everyone sucked in their breath…

**"Tyson!" I screamed, but it was too late.**

**Both balls slammed into him … but no … he'd caught them. Somehow Tyson, who was so clumsy he knocked over lab equipment and broke playground structures on a regular basis, had caught two fiery metal balls speeding toward him at a zillion miles an hour. He sent them hurtling back toward their surprised owners, who screamed, "BAAAAAD!" as the bronze spheres exploded against their chests.**

Then let it out.

**The giants disintegrated in twin columns of flame-a sure sign they were monsters, all right. Monsters don't die. They just dissipate into smoke and dust, which saves heroes a lot of trouble cleaning up after a fight.**

**"My brothers!" Joe Bob the Cannibal wailed. He flexed his muscles and his Babycakes tattoo rippled. "You will pay for their destruction!"**

**"Tyson!" I said. "Look out!"**

**Another comet hurtled toward us. Tyson just had time to swat it aside. It flew straight over Coach Nunley's head and landed in the bleachers with a huge KA-BOOM!**

**Kids were running around screaming, trying to avoid the sizzling craters in the floor. Others were banging on the door, calling for help. Sloan himself stood petrified in the middle of the court, watching in disbelief as balls of death flew around him.**

**Coach Nunley still wasn't seeing anything. He tapped his hearing aid like the explosions were giving him interference, but he kept his eyes on his magazine.**

"Seriously!" Artemis shouted. "How oblivious can this mortal get?"

**Surely the whole school could hear the noise. The headmaster, the police, somebody would come help us.**

**"Victory will be ours!" roared Joe Bob the Cannibal. "We will feast on your bones!"**

**I wanted to tell him he was taking the dodgeball game way too seriously, but before I could, he hefted another ball. The other three giants followed his lead.**

**I knew we were dead. Tyson couldn't deflect all those balls at once. His hands had to be seriously burned from blocking the first volley. Without my sword …**

**I had a crazy idea.**

"He's doomed," Thalia said.

"I'm right here," Percy said.

"I know," Thalia simply left it with that.

**I ran toward the locker room.**

**"Move!" I told my teammates. "Away from the door."**

**Explosions behind me. Tyson had batted two of the balls back toward their owners and blasted them to ashes.**

**That left two giants still standing.**

**A third ball hurtled straight at me. I forced myself to wait-one Mississippi, two Mississippi-then dove aside as the fiery sphere demolished the locker room door.**

**Now, I figured that the built-up gas in most boys' locker rooms was enough to cause an explosion, so I wasn't surprised when the flaming dodgeball ignited a huge WHOOOOOOOM!**

The wall blew apart. Locker doors, socks, athletic supporters, and other various nasty personal belongings rained all over the gym.

**I turned just in time to see Tyson punch Skull Eater in the face. The giant crumpled. But the last giant, Joe Bob, had wisely held on to his own ball, waiting for an opportunity. He threw just as Tyson was turning to face him.**

**"NO!" shouted the camp.**

**"No!" I yelled.**

**The ball caught Tyson square in the chest. He slid the length of the court and slammed into the back wall, which cracked and partially crumbled on top of him, making a hole right onto Church Street. I didn't see how Tyson could still be alive, but he only looked dazed. The bronze ball was smoking at his feet. Tyson tried to pick it up, but he fell back, stunned, into a pile of cinder blocks.**

**"Well!" Joe Bob gloated. "I'm the last one standing! I'll have enough meat to bring Babycakes a doggie bag!"**

**"You aren't getting anything!" Percy's friends shouted.**

**He picked up another ball and aimed it at Tyson.**

**"Stop!" I yelled. "It's me you want!"**

**The giant grinned. "You wish to die first, young hero?"**

**I had to do something. Riptide had to be around here somewhere.**

**Then I spotted my jeans in a smoking heap of clothes right by the giant's feet. If I could only get there…. I knew it was hopeless, but I charged.**

**The giant laughed. "My lunch approaches." He raised his arm to throw. I braced myself to die.**

"Seriously, kid," Hephaestus said, "you're dad is freaking out over there."

**Suddenly the giant's body went rigid. His expression changed from gloating to surprise. Right where his belly button should've been, his T-shirt ripped open and he grew something like a horn-no, not a horn-the glowing tip of a blade.**

"What's happening?" several people asked.

"You'll see," Percy smirked.

"I'm beginning to hate those words," Poseidon said.

**The ball dropped out of his hand. The monster stared down at the knife that had just run him through from behind.**

**He muttered, "Ow," and burst into a cloud of green flame, which I figured was going to make Babycakes pretty upset.**

"Nice reaction," Chris chuckled.

**Standing in the smoke was my friend Annabeth. Her face was grimy and scratched. She had a ragged backpack slung over her shoulder, her baseball cap tucked in her pocket, a bronze knife in her hand, and a wild look in her storm-gray eyes, like she'd just been chased a thousand miles by ghosts.**

"Nice entrance," Apollo said.

**Matt Sloan, who'd been standing there dumbfounded the whole time, finally came to his senses. He blinked at Annabeth, as if he dimly recognized her from my notebook picture. "That's the girl … That's the girl-"**

Everyone started laughing at Sloan's reaction.

"His face was priceless," Annabeth said, and Percy nodded his head in agreement.

**Annabeth punched him in the nose and knocked him flat. "And you," she told him, "lay off my friend."**

**The gym was in flames. Kids were still running around screaming. I heard sirens wailing and a garbled voice over the intercom. Through the glass windows of the exit doors, I could see the headmaster, Mr. Bonsai, wrestling with the lock, a crowd of teachers piling up behind him.**

**"Annabeth …" I stammered. "How did you … how long have you …"**

**"Pretty much all morning." She sheathed her bronze knife. "I've been trying to find a good time to talk to you, but you were never alone."**

**"The shadow I saw this morning-that was-" My face felt hot. "Oh my gods, you were looking in my bedroom window?"**

Annabeth's face became a deep shade of pink, and everyone laughed.

**"There's no time to explain!" she snapped, though she looked a little red-faced herself. "I just didn't want to-"**

**"There!" a woman screamed. The doors burst open and the adults came pouring in.**

Everyone groaned. _Percy's luck is unbelievable, _Poseidon thought.

**"Meet me outside," Annabeth told me. "And him." She pointed to Tyson, who was still sitting dazed against the wall. Annabeth gave him a look of distaste that I didn't quite understand. "You'd better bring him."**

The campers looked at Annabeth shocked. Thalia and Percy put a hand on her shoulder in comfort. They knew why

**"What?"**

**"No time!" she said. "Hurry!"**

**She put on her Yankees baseball cap, which was a magic gift from her mom, and instantly vanished.**

The Stolls both looked at each other making a silently agreement. They knew who their next target was for a prank.

Hermes noticed the exchange and whispered, "If you know what's best for you, don't prank Annabeth. Remember what happened last time?"

They both nodded in response. They were too shocked with their father's advice.

**That left me standing alone in the middle of the burning gymnasium when the headmaster came charging in with half the faculty and a couple of police officers.**

**"Percy Jackson?" Mr. Bonsai said. "What … how …"**

**Over by the broken wall, Tyson groaned and stood up from the pile of cinder blocks. "Head hurts."**

"Try being thrown off of Olympus by your mother," Hephaestus grumbled. "Then see how much your head hurts."

"I said I was sorry!" Hera shouted.

"No you didn't," Hephaestus said.

Hera muttered something no one could here.

**Matt Sloan was coming around, too. He focused on me with a look of terror. "Percy did it, Mr. Bonsai! He set the whole building on fire. Coach Nunley will tell you! He saw it all!"**

**Coach Nunley had been dutifully reading his magazine, but just my luck-he chose that moment to look up when Sloan said his name. "Eh? Yeah. Mm-hmm."**

"That coach should be glad he isn't here," Poseidon said through gritted teeth.

**The other adults turned toward me. I knew they would never believe me, even if I could tell them the truth.**

**I grabbed Riptide out of my ruined jeans, told Tyson, "Come on!" and jumped through the gaping hole in the side of the building.**

"Done!" Zoe shouted.

"That reminds me of something that happened a couple years ago," Rachel said.

Annabeth laughed remembering too.

"I get it," Percy said. "I blow up schools a lot. I'll read next."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N What's up? Besides the sky obviously... So this will be the last chapter until next week. I wasn't going to upload anything else before the trip, but I decide to finish this as a little present! Hope you like it! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from PJO or HoO. All rights belong to Rick Riordan.**

**"We hail a taxi of eternal torment,"** Percy read.

"That doesn't sound fun," Nico said.

"It wasn't," Annabeth and Percy said.

**Annabeth was waiting for us in an alley down Church Street. She pulled Tyson and me off the sidewalk just as a fire truck screamed past, heading for Meriwether Prep.**

**"Where'd you find him?" she demanded, pointing at Tyson.**

**Now, under different circumstances, I would've been really happy to see her. We'd made our peace last summer, despite the fact that her mom was Athena and didn't get along with my dad. I'd missed Annabeth probably more than I wanted to admit.**

'AWs' were heard all throughout the camp, and Percy blushed a deep shade of red.

**But I'd just been attacked by cannibal giants, Tyson had saved my life three or four times, and all Annabeth could do was glare at him like he was the problem.**

**"He's my friend," I told her.**

**"Is he homeless?"**

**"What does that have to do with anything? He can hear you, you know. Why don't you ask him?"**

**She looked surprised. "He can talk?"**

"That was rude," someone said tactlessly.

**"I talk," Tyson admitted. "You are pretty."**

**"Ah! Gross!" Annabeth stepped away from him.**

**I couldn't believe she was being so rude. I examined Tyson's hands, which I was sure must've been badly scorched by the flaming dodge balls, but they looked fine-grimy and scarred, with dirty fingernails the size of potato chips-but they always looked like that. "Tyson," I said in disbelief. "Your hands aren't even burned."**

**"Of course not," Annabeth muttered. "I'm surprised the Laistrygonians had the guts to attack you with him around."**

"Percy's going to be soo confused," Thalia said.

"I'm right here you know," Percy said.

"I know," Thalia replied.

**Tyson seemed fascinated by Annabeth's blond hair. He tried to touch it, but she smacked his hand away.**

**"Annabeth," I said, "what are you talking about? Laistry-what?"**

**"Laistrygonians. The monsters in the gym. They're a race of giant cannibals who live in the far north. Odysseus ran into them once, but I've never seen them as far south as New York before."**

**"Laistry-I can't even say that. What would you call them in English?"**

**She thought about it for a moment. "Canadians," she decided. "Now come on, we have to get out of here."**

"Canadians?" Jason asked.

**"It was the closest name for them," Annabeth said as if the answer was obvious.**

**"The police'll be after me."**

"There always after you," Nico said.

**"That's the least of our problems," she said. "Have you been having the dreams?"**

**"The dreams … about Grover?"**

**Her face turned pale. "Grover? No, what about Grover?"**

**I told her my dream. "Why? What were you dreaming about?"**

"About you," Aphrodite giggled.

There was silence for a minute, then everyone said, "APHRODITE!"

**Her eyes looked stormy, like her mind was racing a million miles an hour.**

**"Camp," she said at last. "Big trouble at camp."**

**"My mom was saying the same thing! But what kind of trouble?"**

**"I don't know exactly. Something's wrong. We have to get there right away. Monsters have been chasing me all the way from Virginia, trying to stop me. Have you had a lot of attacks?"**

**I shook my head. "None all year … until today."**

"Ohhh," Athena said in realizing why he wasn't attacked.

**"None? But how …" Her eyes drifted to Tyson. "Oh."**

**"What do you mean, 'oh'?"**

**Tyson raised his hand like he was still in class. "Canadians in the gym called Percy something … Son of the Sea God?"**

"Tyson must be confused," Rachel said.

"Yeah," Percy said with a smile, "he was."

**Annabeth and I exchanged looks.**

**I didn't know how I could explain, but I figured Tyson deserved the truth after almost getting killed.**

**"Big guy," I said, "you ever hear those old stories about the Greek gods? Like Zeus, Poseidon, Athena-"**

**"Yes," Tyson said.**

**"Well … those gods are still alive. They kind of follow Western Civilization around, living in the strongest countries, so like now they're in the U.S. And sometimes they have kids with mortals. Kids called half-bloods."**

**"Yes," Tyson said, like he was still waiting for me to get to the point.**

**"Uh, well, Annabeth and I are half-bloods," I said. "We're like … heroes-in-training. And whenever monsters pick up our scent, they attack us. That's what those giants were in the gym. Monsters."**

"He already knows that," Thalia said.

"I didn't know that then," Percy defended himself.

**"Yes."**

**I stared at him. He didn't seem surprised or confused by what I was telling him, which surprised and confused me. "So … you believe me?"**

**Tyson nodded. "But you are … Son of the Sea God?"**

**"Yeah," I admitted. "My dad is Poseidon."**

**Tyson frowned. Now he looked confused. "But then …"**

**A siren wailed. A police car raced past our alley.**

**"We don't have time for this," Annabeth said. "We'll talk in the taxi."**

"A taxi all the way to camp?" Nico asked. "You know how much money that would cost?"

**"A taxi all the way to camp?" I said. "You know how much money-"**

Nico groaned. "Great, I think like Kelp Head."

"That's my nickname for him," Thalia said. "Get your own."

"How about Fish Breath?" Nico asked.

"That's good," Thalia agreed.

**"Trust me."**

**I hesitated. "What about Tyson?"**

"You can't leave him," Katie said.

**I imagined escorting my giant friend into Camp Half-Blood. If he freaked out on a regular playground with regular bullies, how would he act at a training camp for demigods? On the other hand, the cops would be looking for us.**

**"We can't just leave him," I decided. "He'll be in trouble, too."**

**"Yeah." Annabeth looked grim. "We definitely need to take him. Now come on."**

**I didn't like the way she said that, as if Tyson were a big disease we needed to get to the hospital, but I followed her down the alley. Together the three of us sneaked through the side streets of downtown while a huge column of smoke billowed up behind us from my school gymnasium.**

**"Here." Annabeth stopped us on the corner of Thomas and Trimble. She fished around in her backpack. "I hope I have one left."**

"Hope you have what left?" Connor asked.

"You'll see," Annabeth said.

"You know what?" Connor said. "I'm beginning to hate those words too."

She looked even worse than I'd realized at first. Her chin was cut. Twigs and grass were tangled in her ponytail, as if she'd slept several nights in the open. The slashes on the hems of her jeans looked suspiciously like claw marks.

"What are you looking for?" I asked.

"That's what we want to know!" the Stolls exclaimed.

**All around us, sirens wailed. I figured it wouldn't be long before more cops cruised by, looking for juvenile delinquent gym-bombers. No doubt Matt Sloan had given them a statement by now. He'd probably twisted the story around so that Tyson and I were the bloodthirsty cannibals.**

"Of course," several people groaned.

**"Found one. Thank the gods." Annabeth pulled out a gold coin that I recognized as a drachma, the currency of Mount Olympus. It had Zeus's likeness stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other.**

"And that was what I was looking for," Annabeth told the Stolls.

"Aww," they complained. "We were hoping for something great."

**"Sorry to disappoint you," Annabeth said. She was feeling guilty of the mean things she said about Tyson, and she leaned into Percy as he put his arm around her.**

**"Annabeth," I said, "New York taxi drivers won't take that."**

**"Stêthi," she shouted in Ancient Greek. "Ô hárma diabolês!"**

**As usual, the moment she spoke in the language of Olympus, I somehow understood it. She'd said: Stop, Chariot of Damnation!**

"That does not sound fun," Apollo said.

"It wasn't," Percy said.

"But it was very useful," Annabeth commented.

**That didn't exactly make me feel real excited about whatever her plan was.**

**She threw her coin into the street, but instead of clattering on the asphalt, the drachma sank right through and disappeared.**

**For a moment, nothing happened.**

**Then, just where the coin had fallen, the asphalt darkened. It melted into a rectangular pool about the size of a parking space-bubbling red liquid like blood. Then a car erupted from the ooze.**

"Woah," several campers said.

**It was a taxi, all right, but unlike every other taxi in New York, it wasn't yellow. It was smoky gray. I mean it looked like it was woven out of smoke, like you could walk right through it. There were words printed on the door-something like GYAR SSIRES-but my dyslexia made it hard for me to decipher what it said.**

**The passenger window rolled down, and an old woman stuck her head out. She had a mop of grizzled hair covering her eyes, and she spoke in a weird mumbling way, like she'd just had a shot of Novocain. "Passage? Passage?"**

**"Three to Camp Half-Blood," Annabeth said. She opened the cab's back door and waved at me to get in, like this was all completely normal.**

"We're demigods," Annabeth said. "Everything's normal."

**"Ach!" the old woman screeched. "We don't take his kind!"**

**She pointed a bony finger at Tyson.**

"What is it?" Poseidon exclaimed. "Pick on Cyclops day?"

**What was it? Pick-on-Big-and-Ugly-Kids Day?**

"Like father like son," Zeus smirked.

**"Extra pay," Annabeth promised. "Three more drachma on arrival."**

"That reminds me," Percy interrupted himself, "did you ever pay them the extra money?"

"Yes, I did," Annabeth said. "Right after the battle. I did not need any bad luck."

Athena nodded in approval.

**"Done!" the woman screamed.**

**Reluctantly I got in the cab. Tyson squeezed in the middle. Annabeth crawled in last.**

**The interior was also smoky gray, but it felt solid enough. The seat was cracked and lumpy-no different than most taxis. There was no Plexiglas screen separating us from the old lady driving … Wait a minute. There wasn't just one old lady. There were three, all crammed in the front seat, each with stringy hair covering her eyes, bony hands, and a charcoal-colored sackcloth dress.**

**The one driving said, "Long Island! Out-of-metro fare bonus! Ha!"**

**She floored the accelerator, and my head slammed against the backrest. A prerecorded voice came on over the speaker: Hi, this is Ganymede, cup-bearer to Zeus, and when I'm out buying wine for the Lord of the Skies, I always buckle up!**

Everyone began laughing. Yes, even Zeus chuckled a little.

**I looked down and found a large black chain instead of a seat belt. I decided I wasn't that desperate … yet.**

**The cab sped around the corner of West Broadway, and the gray lady sitting in the middle screeched, "Look out! Go left!"**

**"Well, if you'd give me the eye, Tempest, I could see that!" the driver complained.**

"Give her the eye?" Rachel asked.

"It's explained in the book," Annabeth replied.

**Wait a minute. Give her the eye?**

**I didn't have time to ask questions because the driver swerved to avoid an oncoming delivery truck, ran over the curb with a jaw-rattling thump, and flew into the next block.**

**"Wasp!" the third lady said to the driver. "Give me the girl's coin! I want to bite it."**

**"Bite it?" half the campers asked.**

**"You bit it last time, Anger!" said the driver, whose name must've been Wasp. "It's my turn!"**

**"Is not!" yelled the one called Anger.**

**The middle one, Tempest, screamed, "Red light!"**

**"Brake!" yelled Anger.**

**Instead, Wasp floored the accelerator and rode up on the curb, screeching around another corner, and knocking over a newspaper box. She left my stomach somewhere back on Broome Street.**

**"Excuse me," I said. "But … can you see?"**

**"No!" screamed Wasp from behind the wheel.**

**"No!" screamed Tempest from the middle.**

**"Of course!" screamed Anger by the shotgun window.**

**I looked at Annabeth. "They're blind?"**

**"Not completely," Annabeth said. "They have an eye."**

"One eye each?" Katie asked hopefully.

"Nope," Annabeth said. "One eye total."

**"One eye?"**

**"Yeah."**

**"Each?"**

**"No. One eye total."**

**Next to me, Tyson groaned and grabbed the seat. "Not feeling so good."**

**"Oh, man," I said, because I'd seen Tyson get carsick on school field trips and it was not something you wanted to be within fifty feet of. "Hang in there, big guy. Anybody got a garbage bag or something?"**

**The three gray ladies were too busy squabbling to pay me any attention. I looked over at Annabeth, who was hanging on for dear life, and I gave her a why-did-you-do-this-to-me look.**

**"Hey," she said, "Gray Sisters Taxi is the fastest way to camp."**

**"Then why didn't you take it from Virginia?"**

People looked at Percy with disbelief. Percy didn't notice because he was reading.

**"That's outside their service area," she said, like that should be obvious. "They only serve Greater New York and surrounding communities."**

**"We've had famous people in this cab!" Anger exclaimed. "Jason! You remember him?"**

"I never took their taxi," Jason said.

"I think they mean the original Jason," Piper said to him.

**"Don't remind me!" Wasp wailed. "And we didn't have a cab back then, you old bat. That was three thousand years ago!"**

**"Give me the tooth!" Anger tried to grab at Wasp's mouth, but Wasp swatted her hand away.**

**"Only if Tempest gives me the eye!"**

**"They fight like little kids," Hera said.**

**"No!" Tempest screeched. "You had it yesterday!"**

**"But I'm driving, you old hag!"**

**"Excuses! Turn! That was your turn!"**

**Wasp swerved hard onto Delancey Street, squishing me between Tyson and the door. She punched the gas and we shot up the Williamsburg Bridge at seventy miles an hour.**

**The three sisters were fighting for real now, slapping each other as Anger tried to grab at Wasp's face and Wasp tried to grab at Tempest's. With their hair flying and their mouths open, screaming at each other, I realized that none of the sisters had any teeth except for Wasp, who had one mossy yellow incisor. Instead of eyes, they just had closed, sunken eyelids, except for Anger, who had one bloodshot green eye that stared at everything hungrily, as if it couldn't get enough of anything it saw.**

**Finally Anger, who had the advantage of sight, managed to yank the tooth out of her sister Wasp's mouth. This made Wasp so mad she swerved toward the edge of the Williamsburg Bridge, yelling, "'Ivit back! 'Ivit back!"**

**Tyson groaned and clutched his stomach.**

"Oh no," those people who have seen car sickness said.

**"Uh, if anybody's interested," I said, "we're going to die!"**

**"Don't worry," Annabeth told me, sounding pretty worried. "The Gray Sisters know what they're doing. They're really very wise."**

Everyone looked at Annabeth as if she was crazy.

When she noticed the looks, she defended herself and said, "They are!"

Athena agreed and added, "They are known for being very wise."

**This coming from the daughter of Athena, but I wasn't exactly reassured. We were skimming along the edge of a bridge a hundred and thirty feet above the East River.**

**"Yes, wise!" Anger grinned in the rearview mirror, showing off her newly acquired tooth. "We know things!"**

"So we've heard," Clarisse grumbled.

**"Every street in Manhattan!" Wasp bragged, still hitting her sister. "The capital of Nepal!"**

**"The location you seek!" Tempest added.**

"What location?" Chris asked.

"You'll see," Percy said.

"I agree with everyone else," Chris said. "Those words are getting annoying."

**Immediately her sisters pummeled her from either side, screaming, "Be quiet! Be quiet! He didn't even ask yet!"**

**"What?" I said. "What location? I'm not seeking any-"**

**"Nothing!" Tempest said. "You're right, boy. It's nothing!"**

**"Tell me."**

**"No!" they all screamed.**

**"The last time we told, it was horrible!" Tempest said.**

**"Eye tossed in a lake!" Anger agreed.**

**"Years to find it again!" Wasp moaned. "And speaking of that-give it back!"**

**"No!" yelled Anger.**

**"Eye!" Wasp yelled. "Gimme!"**

**She whacked her sister Anger on the back. There was a sickening pop and something flew out of Anger's face. Anger fumbled for it, trying to catch it, but she only managed to bat it with the back of her hand. The slimy green orb sailed over her shoulder, into the backseat, and straight into my lap.**

**I jumped so hard, my head hit the ceiling and the eyeball rolled away.**

"Ouch," Leo said.

**"I can't see!" all three sisters yelled.**

**"Give me the eye!" Wasp wailed.**

**"Give her the eye!" Annabeth screamed.**

**"I don't have it!" I said.**

**"There, by your foot," Annabeth said. "Don't step on it! Get it!"**

**"I'm not picking that up!"**

"Prissy," Clarisse said.

"You wouldn't have either," Percy defended himself before he began reading again.

**The taxi slammed against the guardrail and skidded along with a horrible grinding noise. The whole car shuddered, billowing gray smoke as if it were about to dissolve from the strain.**

**"Going to be sick!" Tyson warned.**

**"Annabeth," I yelled, "let Tyson use your backpack!"**

**"Are you crazy? Get the eye!"**

**Wasp yanked the wheel, and the taxi swerved away from the rail. We hurtled down the bridge toward Brooklyn, going faster than any human taxi. The Gray Sisters screeched and pummeled each other and cried out for their eye.**

**At last I steeled my nerves. I ripped off a chunk of my tie-dyed T-shirt, which was already falling apart from all the burn marks, and used it to pick the eyeball off the floor.**

Several people and gods shuddered in disgust.

**"Nice boy!" Anger cried, as if she somehow knew I had her missing peeper. "Give it back!"**

**"Not until you explain," I told her. "What were you talking about, the location I seek?"**

**"No time!" Tempest cried. "Accelerating!"**

**I looked out the window. Sure enough, trees and cars and whole neighborhoods were now zipping by in a gray blur. We were already out of Brooklyn, heading through the middle of Long Island.**

**"Percy," Annabeth warned, "they can't find our destination without the eye. We'll just keep accelerating until we break into a million pieces."**

**"First they have to tell me," I said. "Or I'll open the window and throw the eye into oncoming traffic."**

**"No!" the Gray Sisters wailed. "Too dangerous!"**

**"I'm rolling down the window."**

**"Wait!" the Gray Sisters screamed. "30, 31, 75, 12!"**

Those who remembered the campfire said 'Oh'.

**They belted it out like a quarterback calling a play.**

**"What do you mean?" I said. "That makes no sense!"**

**"30, 31, 75, 12!" Anger wailed. "That's all we can tell you. Now give us the eye! Almost to camp!"**

**We were off the highway now, zipping through the countryside of northern Long Island. I could see Half-Blood Hill ahead of us, with its giant pine tree at the crest-Thalia's tree, which contained the life force or a fallen hero.**

**"Percy!" Annabeth said more urgently. "Give them the eye now!"**

**I decided not to argue. I threw the eye into Wasp's lap.**

Cue shudders.

**The old lady snatched it up, pushed it into her eye socket like somebody putting in a contact lens, and blinked. "Whoa!"**

**She slammed on the brakes. The taxi spun four or five times in a cloud of smoke and squealed to a halt in the middle of the farm road at the base of Half-Blood Hill.**

**Tyson let loose a huge belch. "Better now."**

**"All right," I told the Gray Sisters. "Now tell me what those numbers mean."**

**"No time!" Annabeth opened her door. "We have to get out now."**

**I was about to ask why, when I looked up at Half-Blood Hill and understood.**

**At the crest of the hill was a group of campers. And they were under attack.**

"What?" Piper asked.

"Done!" Percy shouted. "Who would like to read now?"

"I'll read," Annabeth said.

* * *

**A/N Hope you liked it! I'm sorry about the long wait for the next chapter. **


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N Hey, guys! Sorry about the wait. I just needed a little break from everything. Life has been pretty chaotic lately. Anyways, here's the next chapter! Hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from PJO or HoO. All rights belong to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

**"Tyson plays with fire, "** Annabeth began.

**Mythologically speaking, if there's anything I hate worse than trios of old ladies, it's bulls.**

**Last summer, I fought the Minotaur on top of Half-Blood Hill. This time what I saw up there was even worse: two bulls. And not just regular bulls-bronze ones the size of elephants. And even that wasn't bad enough. Naturally they had to breathe fire, too.**

"Naturally," Thalia said. Demigods always have bad luck.

**As soon as we exited the taxi, the Gray Sisters peeled out, heading back to New York, where life was safer. They didn't even wait for their extra three-drachma payment.**

"You did pay them, right?" Rachel asked Annabeth.

"Oh, yeah," Annabeth said. "If I didn't, who knows what would've happened. I did not need any more bad luck, especially during that summer."

All the demigods that were there in that summer nodded. They all had bad luck then.

**They just left us on the side of the road, Annabeth with nothing but her backpack and knife, Tyson and me still in our burned-up tie-dyed gym clothes.**

**Everyone began laughing. The image of a demigod and Cyclops in those clothes fighting was just hilarious.**

**"Oh, man," said Annabeth, looking at the battle raging on the hill.**

"Oh, man, is right," Chris said.

**What worried me most weren't the bulls themselves. Or the ten heroes in full battle armor who were getting their bronze-plated booties whooped. What worried me was that the bulls were ranging all over the hill, even around the back side of the pine tree. That shouldn't have been possible. The camp's magic boundaries didn't allow monsters to cross past Thalia's tree. But the metal bulls were doing it anyway.**

**One of the heroes shouted, "Border patrol, to me!" A girl's voice-gruff and familiar.**

**Border patrol? I thought. The camp didn't have a border patrol.**

**"It's Clarisse," Annabeth said. "Come on, we have to help her."**

"I didn't need your help, Princess," Clarisse sneered.

"Whatever you say, Clarisse," Annabeth sighed.

**Normally, rushing to Clarisse's aid would not have been high on my "to do" list. She was one of the biggest bullies at camp. The first time we'd met she tried to introduce my head to a toilet. She was also a daughter of Ares, and I'd had a very serious disagreement with her father last summer, so now the god of war and all his children basically hated my guts.**

Ares face morphed into anger._ I need to get Jackson back for that…_he thought.

**Still, she was in trouble. Her fellow warriors were scattering, running in panic as the bulls charged. The grass was burning in huge swathes around the pine tree. One hero screamed and waved his arms as he ran in circles, the horsehair plume on his helmet blazing like a fiery Mohawk. Clarisse's own armor was charred. She was fighting with a broken spear shaft, the other end embedded uselessly in the metal joint of one bull's shoulder.**

**I uncapped my ballpoint pen. It shimmered, growing longer and heavier until I held the bronze sword Anaklusmos in my hands. "Tyson, stay here. I don't want you taking any chances." **

People looked at Percy like 'how can you be so oblivious'.

**"No!" Annabeth said. "We need him."**

"At least someone's making some since," Artemis said.

**I stared at her. "He's mortal. He got lucky with the dodge balls but he can't-"**

"Mortal?" half the camp asked.

"I didn't know then!" Percy said.

**"Percy, do you know what those are up there? The Colchis bulls, made by Hephaestus himself. We can't fight them without Medea's Sunscreen SPF 50,000. We'll get burned to a crisp."**

"We had some in our cabin," Drew said uninterested.

"Why didn't you tell us then?" Annabeth asked.

"So I have to tell you everything in my cabin?" Drew asked.

"No," Annabeth began, "but it would've been helpful if you did mention about the sunscreen."

Percy pulled Annabeth in with a kiss, which calmed Annabeth. Drew huffed in annoyance.

"Get a room!" someone shouted.

"Get a girlfriend!" Percy retorted.

Athena glared at Percy, and he settled for keeping his arm wrapped around Annabeth.

"Actually I need to start reading again," Annabeth said moving Percy's arm.

"Oooooh," the guys chanted.

"Oh, shush," Percy grumbled.

**"Medea's what?"**

"Hate her," Piper said.

Everyone, except Jason and Leo, looked at her confused and she said, "You'll see."

**Annabeth rummaged through her backpack and cursed. "I had a jar of tropical coconut scent sitting on my night-stand at home. Why didn't I bring it?"**

**I'd learned a long time ago not to question Annabeth too much. It just made me more confused. "Look, I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm not going to let Tyson get fried."**

"Before you say anything," "I did not—"

"Know that he was a Cyclops," they finished.

**"Percy-"**

**"Tyson, stay back." I raised my sword. "I'm going in."**

**Tyson tried to protest, but I was already running up the hill toward Clarisse, who was yelling at her patrol, trying to get them into phalanx formation. It was a good idea. The few who were listening lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, locking their shields to form an ox-hide-and-bronze wall, their spears bristling over the top like porcupine quills.**

"You have the weirdest analogies," Bianca noticed.

"Why thank you," Percy said.

No one could tell if he was being serious or not.

**Unfortunately, Clarisse could only muster six campers. The other four were still running around with their helmets on fire. Annabeth ran toward them, trying to help. She taunted one of the bulls into chasing her, then turned invisible, completely confusing the monster. The other bull charged Clarisse's line.**

"About that, Princess," Clarisse began.

"You're welcome," Annabeth said. She could tell Clarisse was grateful because of her facial expression.

**I was halfway up the hill-not close enough to help. Clarisse hadn't even seen me yet.**

**The bull moved deadly fast for something so big. Its metal hide gleamed in the sun. It had fist-sized rubies for eyes, and horns of polished silver. When it opened its hinged mouth, a column of white-hot flame blasted out.**

**"Hold the line!" Clarisse ordered her warriors.**

**Whatever else you could say about Clarisse, she was brave. She was a big girl with cruel eyes like her father's. She looked like she was born to wear Greek battle armor, but I didn't see how even she could stand against that bull's charge.**

"I would've been fine, Prissy," Clarisse grumbled.

"Smashed to pieces," Percy said, "but fine."

Before a fight could break out, Annabeth continued reading.

**Unfortunately, at that moment, the other bull lost interest in finding Annabeth. It turned, wheeling around behind Clarisse on her unprotected side.**

**"Behind you!" I yelled. "Look out!"**

"You shouldn't have said anything, punk," Ares growled.

**I shouldn't have said anything, because all I did was startle her. Bull Number One crashed into her shield, and the phalanx broke. Clarisse went flying backward and landed in a smoldering patch of grass. The bull charged past her, but not before blasting the other heroes with its fiery breath. Their shields melted right off their arms. They dropped their weapons and ran as Bull Number Two closed in on Clarisse for the kill.**

**I lunged forward and grabbed Clarisse by the straps of her armor. I dragged her out of the way just as Bull Number Two freight-trained past. I gave it a good swipe with Riptide and cut a huge gash in its flank, but the monster just creaked and groaned and kept on going.**

**It hadn't touched me, but I could feel the heat of its metal skin. Its body temperature could've microwaved a frozen burrito.**

**"Let me go!" Clarisse pummeled my hand. "Percy, curse you!"**

"For what?" Thalia asked. "Saving your life?"

"Watch it, girly," Clarisse said.

**I dropped her in a heap next to the pine tree and turned to face the bulls. We were on the inside slope of the hill now, the valley of Camp Half-Blood directly below us-the cabins, the training facilities, the Big House-all of it at risk if these bulls got past us.**

**Annabeth shouted orders to the other heroes, telling them to spread out and keep the bulls distracted.**

Athena nodded in approval. At least someone was keeping things in control.

**Bull Number One ran a wide arc, making its way back toward me. As it passed the middle of the hill, where the invisible boundary line should've kept it out, it slowed down a little, as if it were struggling against a strong wind; but then it broke through and kept coming. Bull Number Two turned to face me, fire sputtering from the gash I'd cut in its side. I couldn't tell if it felt any pain, but its ruby eyes seemed to glare at me like I'd just made things personal.**

**I couldn't fight both bulls at the same time. I'd have to take down Bull Number Two first, cut its head off before Bull Number One charged back into range. My arms already felt tired. I realized how long it had been since I'd worked out with Riptide, how out of practice I was.**

"First rule," Travis began.

"Never be out of practice," Connor finished.

**Everyone looked at them confused, and they said, "It's a long story."**

**I lunged but Bull Number Two blew flames at me. I rolled aside as the air turned to pure heat. All the oxygen was sucked out of my lungs. My foot caught on something-a tree root, maybe-and pain shot up my ankle. Still, I managed to slash with my sword and lop off part of the monster's snout. It galloped away, wild and disoriented. But before I could feel too good about that, I tried to stand, and my left leg buckled underneath me. My ankle was sprained, maybe broken.**

Cue groaning.

"Of course it was," Poseidon said.

Percy smiled sheepishly.

**Bull Number One charged straight toward me. No way could I crawl out of its path.**

**Annabeth shouted: "Tyson, help him!"**

**Somewhere near, toward the crest of the hill, Tyson wailed, "Can't-get-through!"**

**"I, Annabeth Chase, give you permission to enter camp!"**

"So you allowed him to enter camp, Annie bell?" Dionysus asked.

"It's Annabeth!" the camp shouted.

Annabeth blushed as she continued to read.

**Thunder shook the hillside. Suddenly Tyson was there, barreling toward me, yelling: "Percy needs help!"**

**Before I could tell him no, he dove between me and the bull just as it unleashed a nuclear firestorm.**

**"Tyson!" I yelled.**

**The blast swirled around him like a red tornado. I could only see the black silhouette of his body. I knew with horrible certainty that my friend had just been turned into a column of ashes.**

**But when the fire died, Tyson was still standing there, completely unharmed. Not even his grungy clothes were scorched. The bull must've been as surprised as I was, because before it could unleash a second blast, Tyson balled his fists and slammed them into the bull's face. "BAD COW!"**

Everyone began laughing.

"You gotta love Tyson," Hermes said in between laughs and wiping a tear from his eye.

**His fists made a crater where the bronze bull's snout used to be. Two small columns of flame shot out of its ears. Tyson hit it again, and the bronze crumpled under his hands like aluminum foil. The bull's face now looked like a sock puppet pulled inside out.**

**"Down!" Tyson yelled.**

**The bull staggered and fell on its back. Its legs moved feebly in the air, steam coming out of its ruined head in odd places.**

Everyone began cheering. Hey, any win is still a win.

**Annabeth ran over to check on me.**

"Awwwww," Nico said.

Everyone looked at him like he grew two heads.

"What are you looking at?" Nico asked.

They all shook their heads.

**My ankle felt like it was filled with acid, but she gave me some Olympian nectar to drink from her canteen, and I immediately started to feel better. There was a burning smell that I later learned was me. The hair on my arms had been completely singed off.**

**"The other bull?" I asked.**

**Annabeth pointed down the hill. Clarisse had taken care of Bad Cow Number Two. She'd impaled it through the back leg with a celestial bronze spear. Now, with its snout half gone and a huge gash in its side, it was trying to run in slow motion, going in circles like some kind of merry-go-round animal.**

**Clarisse pulled off her helmet and marched toward us. A strand of her stringy brown hair was smoldering, but she didn't seem to notice. "You-ruin-everything!" she yelled at me. "I had it under control!"**

"And there's the classic Clarisse welcome," Percy said.

"Watch it, punk," Clarisse growled.

**I was too stunned to answer. Annabeth grumbled, "Good to see you too, Clarisse."**

**"Argh!" Clarisse screamed. "Don't ever, EVER try saving me again!"**

Several people rolled their eyes.

Percy said, "Good thing I didn't. Right, Clarisse?"

Clarisse growled. _Okay, maybe I did need his help with the Cyclops island and the chariot. Oh gosh! The Chariot! I hope father doesn't find out about that…. _Clarisse began looking worried_. _

**"Clarisse," Annabeth said, "you've got wounded campers."**

**That sobered her up. Even Clarisse cared about the soldiers under her command.**

"Everyone cares about their wounded soldiers," Thalia said.

"Except for Kronos," Percy said.

The gods and demigods all agreed.

**"I'll be back," she growled, then trudged off to assess the damage.**

**I stared at Tyson. "You didn't die."**

**Tyson looked down like he was embarrassed. "I am sorry. Came to help. Disobeyed you."**

All of the girls said, "Awwww! He's sooo sweet!"

**"My fault," Annabeth said. "I had no choice. I had to let Tyson cross the boundary line to save you. Otherwise, you would've died."**

**"Let him cross the boundary line?'" I asked. "But-"**

**"Percy," she said, "have you ever looked at Tyson closely? I mean … in the face. Ignore the Mist, and really look at him."**

"Dun, dun, duuuuuun," Leo, Nico, and the Stolls said.

**The Mist makes humans see only what their brains can process … I knew it could fool demigods too, but…**

Piper looked down, and Jason noticed. He put an arm around her for support.

**I looked Tyson in the face. It wasn't easy. I'd always had trouble looking directly at him, though I'd never quite understood why. I'd thought it was just because he always had peanut butter in his crooked teeth. I forced myself to focus at his big lumpy nose, then a little higher at his eyes.**

"Not eyes," most campers and gods said.

**No, not eyes.**

**One eye. One large, calf-brown eye, right in the middle of his forehead, with thick lashes and big tears trickling down his cheeks on either side.**

**"Tyson," I stammered. "You're a …"**

"Cyclops," Percy said.

**"Cyclops," Annabeth offered. "A baby, by the looks of him. Probably why he couldn't get past the boundary line as easily as the bulls. Tyson's one of the homeless orphans."**

"Huh?" Rachel asked. Her questioned was ignored, and Annabeth continued reading.

**"One of the what?"**

**"They're in almost all the big cities," Annabeth said distastefully. "They're … mistakes, Percy. Children of nature spirits and gods … Well, one god in particular, usually … and they don't always come out right. No one wants them. They get tossed aside. They grow up wild on the streets. I don't know how this one found you, but he obviously likes you. We should take him to Chiron, let him decide what to do."**

**"But the fire. How-"**

**"He's a Cyclops." Annabeth paused, as if she were remembering something unpleasant. "They work the forges of the gods. They have to be immune to fire. That's what I was trying to tell you."**

Annabeth interrupted herself and said, "You would know, if you listen."

"I do listen!" Percy defended himself. "I don't always take in what people say."

"Obviously," half the camp said.

Percy pouted as Annabeth continued reading.

**I was completely shocked. How had I never realized what Tyson was?**

"Because most boys are oblivious," Artemis said.

Those said boys shouted, "Hey!"

**But I didn't have much time to think about it just then. The whole side of the hill was burning. Wounded heroes needed attention. And there were still two banged-up bronze bulls to dispose of, which I didn't figure would fit in our normal recycling bins.**

"Really, Perce?" Nico said.

**Clarisse came back over and wiped the soot off her forehead. "Jackson, if you can stand, get up. We need to carry the wounded back to the Big House, let Tantalus know what's happened."**

**"Tantalus?" I asked.**

Everyone who was there groaned. They all hated Tantalus.

**"The activities director," Clarisse said impatiently.**

**"Chiron is the activities director. And where's Argus? He's head of security. He should be here."**

**Clarisse made a sour face. "Argus got fired. You two have been gone too long. Things are changing."**

"Then why is Argus back?" Piper asked cautiously.

"You'll see," Percy said with a grin.

**"But Chiron … He's trained kids to fight monsters for over three thousand years. He can't just be gone. What happened?"**

**"That happened," Clarisse snapped.**

**She pointed to Thalia's tree.**

Luke looked down as all heads turned to him.

**Every camper knew the story behind the tree. Six years ago, Grover, Annabeth, and two other demigods named Thalia and Luke had come to Camp Half-Blood chased by an army of monsters. When they got cornered on top of this hill, Thalia, a daughter of Zeus, had made her last stand here to give her friends time to reach safety. As she was dying, her father, Zeus, took pity on her and changed her into a pine tree. Her spirit had reinforced the magic borders of the camp, protecting it from monsters. The pine had been here ever since, strong and healthy.**

**But now, its needles were yellow. A huge pile of dead ones littered the base of the tree. In the center of the trunk, three feet from the ground, was a puncture mark the size of a bullet hole, oozing green sap.**

**A sliver of ice ran through my chest. Now I understood why the camp was in danger. The magical borders were failing because Thalia's tree was dying.**

**Someone had poisoned it.**

"Done," Annabeth said.

"One more chapter before lunch," Athena said.

"Awww,' the boys complained.

* * *

**A/N That's it! I hope you liked it! Sorry for the long wait. I will try to post another chapter by the end of the week.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N Hey, guys! So, I've had a few questions about why Annabeth was acting 'mean' in the last chapter. If you look back, you can see that Drew was getting on Annabeth's nerves. Percy distracted her by kissing her. He was going to keep his arm around her, but Annabeth was reading. Annabeth took his arm off of him so she wouldn't have any distractions. She was also just teasing Percy a little. With that out of way, here's the next chapter. Make sure to look at the ending author's note.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from PJO or HoO. All rights belong to Rick Riordan.**

* * *

"I'll read," Grover offered.

**" I get a new cabin mate,"** Grover read.

**Ever come home and found your room messed up? Like some helpful person (hi, Mom) has tried to "clean" it,**

"Sorry?" Percy said sheepishly.

"It's fine, honey," Sally replied.

**and suddenly you can't find anything? And even if nothing is missing, you get that creepy feeling like somebody's been looking through your private stuff and dusting everything with lemon furniture polish?**

"I like the smell lemon," Percy whispered to Annabeth. She blushed as she giggled slightly. Percy wrapped an arm around her as Grover continued reading.

**That's kind of the way I felt seeing Camp Half-Blood again.**

The demigods nodded sadly. They hated seeing their home destroyed.

**On the surface, things didn't look all that different. The Big House was still there with its blue gabled roof and its wraparound porch. The strawberry fields still baked in the sun. The same white-columned Greek buildings were scattered around the valley-the amphitheater, the combat arena, the dining pavilion overlooking Long Island Sound. And nestled between the woods and the creek were the same cabins-a crazy assortment of twelve buildings, each representing a different Olympian god.**

**But there was an air of danger now. You could tell something was wrong. Instead of playing volleyball in the sandpit, counselors and satyrs were stockpiling weapons in the tool shed. Dryads armed with bows and arrows talked nervously at the edge of the woods. The forest looked sickly, the grass in the meadow was pale yellow, and the fire marks on Half-Blood Hill stood out like ugly scars.**

Luke looked down. Before he could say anything, Thalia met his eyes. They came with a silent agreement: do not reveal who did it just yet. Even though most people already knew.

**Somebody had messed with my favorite place in the world, and I was not … well, a happy camper.**

"Wow, Perce," Nico said.

**As we made our way to the Big House, I recognized a lot of kids from last summer. Nobody stopped to talk. Nobody said, "Welcome me did double takes when they saw Tyson, but most just walked grimly past and carried on with their duties-running messages, toting swords to sharpen on the grinding wheels. The camp felt like a military school. And believe me, I know. I've been kicked out of a couple.**

Nico looked down. That was the place he lost his sister to become a… hunter. Bianca noticed and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm right here," she whispered.

Nico nodded, and he went back to listening to the story.

**None of that mattered to Tyson. He was absolutely fascinated by everything he saw. "Whasthat!" he gasped.**

**"The stables for pegasi," I said. "The winged horses."**

**"Whasthat!"**

**"Um … those are the toilets."**

"He didn't know what toilets are?" someone asked.

"I have no idea," Percy said.

**"Whasthat!"**

**"The cabins for the campers. If they don't know who your Olympian parent is, they put you in the Hermes cabin-that brown one over there-until you're determined. Then, once they know, they put you in your dad or mom's group."**

**He looked at me in awe. "You … have a cabin?"**

**"Number three." I pointed to a low gray building made of sea stone.**

**"You live with friends in the cabin?"**

**"No. No, just me." I didn't feel like explaining. The embarrassing truth: I was the only one who stayed in that cabin because I wasn't supposed to be alive. The "Big Three" gods-Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades-had made a pact after World War II not to have any more children with mortals. We were more powerful than regular half-bloods. We were too unpredictable. When we got mad we tended to cause problems … like World War II, for instance. The "Big Three" pact had only been broken twice-once when Zeus sired Thalia, once when Poseidon sired me. Neither of us should've been born.**

Nico, Thalia, Percy, and Jason all looked down. It was depressing to live alone in a cabin.

**Thalia had gotten herself turned into a pine tree when she was twelve. Me … well, I was doing my best not to follow her example. I had nightmares about what Poseidon might turn me into if I were ever on the verge of death- plankton, maybe. Or a floating patch of kelp.**

Everyone chuckled.

"I wouldn't turn you into kelp," Poseidon said. "I would turn you into a dolphin probably."

"Um…" Percy said slowly, "thanks?"

**When we got to the Big House, we found Chiron in his apartment, listening to his favorite 1960s lounge music while he packed his saddlebags. I guess I should mention-Chiron is a centaur. From the waist up he looks like a regular middle-aged guy with curly brown hair and a scraggly beard. From the waist down, he's a white stallion. He can pass for human by compacting his lower half into a magic wheelchair. In fact, he'd passed himself off as my Latin teacher during my sixth-grade year. But most of the time, if the ceilings are high enough, he prefers hanging out in full centaur form.**

**As soon as we saw him, Tyson froze. "Pony!" he cried in total rapture.**

Most of the campers and gods tried to stifle their laughs, but didn't succeed. Chiron just sighed.

**Chiron turned, looking offended. "I beg your pardon?"**

**Annabeth ran up and hugged him. "Chiron, what's happening? You're not … leaving?" Her voice was shaky. Chiron was like a second father to her.**

"You're like a second father to all of us I think," Annabeth said.

Everyone murmured in agreement as Chiron said, "thank you, child."

**Chiron ruffled her hair and gave her a kindly smile. "Hello, child. And Percy, my goodness. You've grown over the year!"**

**I swallowed. "Clarisse said you were … you were …"**

"Fired," several people said with different emotions. Some with anger. Some with sadness. Some had a mixture of both.

**"Fired." Chiron's eyes glinted with dark humor. "Ah, well, someone had to take the blame. Lord Zeus was most upset. The tree he'd created from the spirit of his daughter, poisoned! Mr. D had to punish someone."**

"You would never poison the tree," someone said.

**Chiron shrugged. "I'm back aren't I? It's done and over with. No use arguing about it."**

**"Besides himself, you mean," I growled. Just the thought of the camp director, Mr. D, made me angry.**

"The feeling's mutual," Dionysus said.

Everyone looked back at him, and his eyes were closed as if he was sleeping. All the campers' faces looked confused. _Is he actually paying attention, _they thought.

**"But this is crazy!" Annabeth cried. "Chiron, you couldn't have had anything to do with poisoning Thalia's tree!"**

**"Nevertheless," Chiron sighed, "some in Olympus do not trust me now, under the circumstances."**

Percy looked at all the gods and said, "Chiron would never betray you. Most of you are children of him as well, right? Would you betray your family for him?"

The gods looked down in shame.

"I'm sorry, Chiron," Zeus said. "I was just angry."

Gasps were heard all around the camp fire.

"Did you just apologize?" Hades asked.

"By Jove, I think he did!" Apollo exclaimed.

"No one has said that in a few hundred years, Lord Apollo," Zoe said.

Thalia looked back at Zoe and said, "Finally! Finally you've caught on!"

Zoe smiled slightly as Grover decided to continue reading before it got crazy.

**"What circumstances?" I asked.**

**Chiron's face darkened. He stuffed a Latin-English dictionary into his saddlebag while the Frank Sinatra music oozed from his boom box.**

**Tyson was still staring at Chiron in amazement. He whimpered like he wanted to pat Chiron's flank but was afraid to come closer. "Pony?"**

Despite the situation, several campers snickered. Even Chiron smiled.

**Chiron sniffed. "My dear young Cyclops! I am a centaur."**

**"Chiron," I said. "What about the tree? What happened?"**

**He shook his head sadly. "The poison used on Thalia's pine is something from the Underworld, Percy. Some venom even I have never seen. It must have come from a monster quite deep in the pits of Tartarus."**

**"Then we know who's responsible. Kro-"**

"NO!" the entire camp shouted even though they knew it was in the past. The shout made the flames soar high into the sky.

**"Do not invoke the titan lord's name, Percy. Especially not here, not now."**

**"But last summer he tried to cause a civil war in Olympus! This has to be his idea. He'd get Luke to do it, that traitor."**

**"Perhaps," Chiron said. "But I fear I am being held responsible because I did not prevent it and I cannot cure it. The tree has only a few weeks of life left unless …"**

"Unless what?" someone asked.

**"Unless what?" Annabeth asked.**

**"No," Chiron said. "A foolish thought. The whole valley is feeling the shock of the poison. The magical borders are deteriorating. The camp itself is dying. Only one source of magic would be strong enough to reverse the poison, and it was lost centuries ago."**

**"What is it?" I asked. "We'll go find it!"**

**Chiron closed his saddlebag. He pressed the stop button on his boom box. Then he turned and rested his hand on my shoulder, looking me straight in the eyes. "Percy, you must promise me that you will not act rashly. I told your mother I did not want you to come here at all this summer. It's much too dangerous. But now that you are here, stay here. Train hard. Learn to fight. But do not leave."**

**"Why?" I asked. "I want to do something! I can't just let the borders fail. The whole camp will be-"**

**"Overrun by monsters," Chiron said. "Yes, I fear so. But you must not let yourself be baited into hasty action! This could be a trap of the titan lord. Remember last summer! He almost took your life."**

"He always has a trap planned," Luke began with sadness, "and you don't realize it until it's finished."

Most of the campers wanted to stay mad at him, but it was hard to.

**It was true, but still, I wanted to help so badly. I also wanted to make Kronos pay. I mean, you'd think the titan lord would've learned his lesson eons ago when he was overthrown by the gods. You'd think getting chopped into a million pieces and cast into the darkest part of the Underworld would give him a subtle clue that nobody wanted him around. But no. Because he was immortal, he was still alive down there in Tartarus-suffering in eternal pain, hungering to return and take revenge on Olympus. He couldn't act on his own, but he was great at twisting the minds of mortals and even gods to do his dirty work.**

"That's Kronos for you," Hephaestus said.

**The poisoning had to be his doing. Who else would be so low as to attack Thalia's tree, the only thing left of a hero who'd given her life to save her friends?**

**Annabeth was trying hard not to cry. Chiron brushed a tear from her cheek. "Stay with Percy, child," he told her. "Keep him safe. The prophecy-remember it!"**

**"I-I will."**

**"Um …" I said. "Would this be the super-dangerous prophecy that has me in it, but the gods have forbidden you to tell me about?"**

"Yep!" the Stoll brothers said.

Nobody answered.

**"Right," I muttered. "Just checking."**

**"Chiron …" Annabeth said. "You told me the gods made you immortal only so long as you were needed to train heroes. If they dismiss you from camp-"**

**"Swear you will do your best to keep Percy from danger," he insisted. "Swear upon the River Styx."**

**"I-I swear it upon the River Styx," Annabeth said.**

**Thunder rumbled outside.**

**"Very well," Chiron said. He seemed to relax just a little. "Perhaps my name will be cleared and I shall return. Until then, I go to visit my wild kinsmen in the Everglades. It's possible they know of some cure for the poisoned tree that I have forgotten. In any event, I will stay in exile until this matter is resolved … one way or another."**

**Annabeth stifled a sob. Chiron patted her shoulder awkwardly. "There, now, child. I must entrust your safety to Mr. D and the new activities director. We must hope … well, perhaps they won't destroy the camp quite as quickly as I fear."**

"They won't," several campers said.

**"Who is this Tantalus guy, anyway?" I demanded. "Where does he get off taking your job?"**

All of the campers glared at Dionysus. They did not enjoy that summer with Tantalus.

**A conch horn blew across the valley. I hadn't realized how late it was. It was time for the campers to assemble for dinner.**

**"Go," Chiron said. "You will meet him at the pavilion. I will contact your mother, Percy, and let her know you're safe. No doubt she'll be worried by now. Just remember my warning! You are in grave danger. Do not think for a moment that the titan lord has forgotten you!"**

**With that, he clopped out of the apartment and down the hall, Tyson calling after him, "Pony! Don't go!"**

There were a few smiles seen throughout the camp fire.

**I realized I'd forgotten to tell Chiron about my dream of Grover. Now it was too late. The best teacher I'd ever had was gone, maybe for good.**

**Tyson started bawling almost as bad as Annabeth. I tried to tell them that things would be okay, but I didn't believe it.**

Annabeth leaned over to Percy and whispered, "It wasn't convincing."

Percy kissed her then said, "How's that for an apology?"

"Apology accepted," she said as she leaned into his arms.

**The sun was setting behind the dining pavilion as the campers came up from their cabins. We stood in the shadow of a marble column and watched them file in. Annabeth was still pretty shaken up, but she promised she'd talk to us later. Then she went off to join her siblings from the Athena cabin-a dozen boys and girls with blond hair and gray eyes like hers. Annabeth wasn't the oldest, but she'd been at camp more summers than just about anybody. You could tell that by looking at her camp necklace-one bead for every summer, and Annabeth had six. No one questioned her right to lead the line.**

Without realizing, Annabeth started rolling her necklace with her fingers.

**Next came Clarisse, leading the Ares cabin. She had one arm in a sling and a nasty-looking gash on her cheek, but otherwise her encounter with the bronze bulls didn't seem to have fazed her. Someone had taped a piece of paper to her back that said, YOU MOO, GIRL! But nobody in her cabin was bothering to tell her about it.**

"How come NO ONE told me that?" Clarisse asked as she glared all the campers down.

They all avoided her glare.

**After the Ares kids came the Hephaestus cabin-six guys led by Charles Beckendorf, a big fifteen-year-old African American kid. He had hands the size of catchers' mitts and a face that was hard and squinty from looking into a blacksmiths forge all day. He was nice enough once you got to know him, but no one ever called him Charlie or Chuck or Charles. Most just called him Beckendorf. Rumor was he could make anything. Give him a chunk of metal and he could create a razor-sharp sword or a robotic warrior or a singing birdbath for your grandmother's garden. Whatever you wanted.**

Everyone looked down despondent. They all missed him and Silena.

**The other cabins filed in: Demeter, Apollo, Aphrodite, Dionysus. Naiads came up from the canoe lake. Dryads melted out of the trees. From the meadow came a dozen satyrs, who reminded me painfully of Grover. I'd always had a soft spot for the satyrs. When they were at camp, they had to do all kinds of odd jobs for Mr. D, the director, but their most important work was out in the real world. They were the camp's seekers. They went undercover into schools all over the world, looking for potential half-bloods and escorting them back to camp. That's how I'd met Grover. He had been the first one to recognize I was a demigod.**

**After the satyrs filed in to dinner, the Hermes cabin brought up the rear. They were always the biggest cabin. Last summer, it had been led by Luke, the guy who'd fought with Thalia and Annabeth on top of Half-Blood Hill. For a while, before Poseidon had claimed me, I'd lodged in the Hermes cabin. Luke had befriended me … and then he'd tried to kill me.**

"Sorry about that," Luke said. "The Titan Lord—"

Percy cut him off by saying, "What's done is done." Then he blinked in surprise. "I've never said something like that before."

"Chiron?" Annabeth asked.

"We'll talk about this later," Chiron replied. "First, we need to finish the chapter."

Luke nodded as Grover continued reading.

**Now the Hermes cabin was led by Travis and Connor Stoll.**

"Yes!" the Stoll brothers said as they high fived eachother. "We're mentioned!"

**They weren't twins, but they looked so much alike it didn't matter. I could never remember which one was older. They were both tall and skinny, with mops of brown hair that hung in their eyes. They wore orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts untucked over baggy shorts, and they had those elfish features all Hermes's kids had: upturned eyebrows, sarcastic smiles, a gleam in their eyes whenever they looked at you-like they were about to drop a firecracker down your shirt. I'd always thought it was funny that the god of thieves would have kids with the last name "Stoll," but the only time I mentioned it to Travis and Connor, they both stared at me blankly like they didn't get the joke.**

"I told them that once," Thalia began, "but they gave me the same response."

"How do you not get the joke?" Rachel asked looking at the Stoll brothers.

"What joke?" Travis asked.

Rachel and Thalia looked at each other and said, "never mind."

**As soon as the last campers had filed in, I led Tyson into the middle of the pavilion. Conversations faltered. Heads turned. "Who invited that?" somebody at the Apollo table murmured.**

"Sorry," the camper apologized.

**I glared in their direction, but I couldn't figure out who'd spoken.**

**From the head table a familiar voice drawled, "Well, well, if it isn't Peter Johnson. My millennium is complete."**

**I gritted my teeth. "Percy Jackson … sir."**

**Mr. D sipped his Diet Coke. "Yes. Well, as you young people say these days: Whatever."**

**He was wearing his usual leopard-pattern Hawaiian shirt, walking shorts, and tennis shoes with black socks. With his pudgy belly and his blotchy red face, he looked like a Las Vegas tourist who'd stayed up too late in the casinos. Behind him, a nervous-looking satyr was peeling the skins off grapes and handing them to Mr. D one at a time.**

"That is not how you treat the satyrs," Zeus said. "We will talk later."

"Yes, father," Dionysus twitched under his father's glare.

The campers were trying to stifle their laughter, but it didn't work out too well.

**Mr. D's real name is Dionysus. The god of wine. Zeus appointed him director of Camp Half-Blood to dry out for a hundred years-a punishment for chasing some off-limits wood nymph.**

"Now it's only fifty," Dionysus said happily.

"We'll see about that," Zeus glared.

Dionysus and the demigods groaned.

**Next to him, where Chiron usually sat (or stood, in centaur form), was someone I'd never seen before-a pale, horribly thin man in a threadbare orange prisoner's jumpsuit. The number over his pocket read 0001. He had blue shadows under his eyes, dirty fingernails, and badly cut gray hair, like his last haircut had been done with a weed whacker. He stared at me; his eyes made me nervous. He looked … fractured. Angry and frustrated and hungry all at the same time.**

**"This boy," Dionysus told him, "you need to watch. Poseidon's child, you know."**

"What's wrong with my children?" Poseidon asked.

"Well…" Dionysus began but caught Poseidon's glare, "Nothing. Nothing at all!"

"Uh uh," Poseidon said. "Grover please continue before anything else happens."

"Yes, sir," Grover replied quickly before continuing to read.

**"Ah!" the prisoner said. "That one."**

**His tone made it obvious that he and Dionysus had already discussed me at length.**

**"I am Tantalus," the prisoner said, smiling coldly. "On special assignment here until, well, until my Lord Dionysus decides otherwise. And you, Perseus Jackson, I do expect you to refrain from causing any more trouble."**

"I don't have to find trouble," Percy said. "Trouble usually finds me."

Poseidon groaned as everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

**"Trouble?" I demanded.**

**Dionysus snapped his fingers. A newspaper appeared on the table-the front page of today's New York Post, There was my yearbook picture from Meriwether Prep. It was hard for me to make out the headline, but I had a pretty good guess what it said. Something like: Thirteen-Year-Old Lunatic Torches Gymnasium.**

"I had a lot of phone calls that day," Sally sighed.

"Sorry?" Percy said sheepishly.

**"Yes, trouble," Tantalus said with satisfaction. "You caused plenty of it last summer, I understand."**

"Remind me again why Tantalus was hired in the first place," Percy said.

Everyone looked at Annabeth because she usually know everything.

Instead, she shrugged and replied with, "Don't look at me. For once, I have no explanation."

"Woah," was heard throughout the camp.

**I was too mad to speak. Like it was my fault the gods had almost gotten into a civil war?**

**A satyr inched forward nervously and set a plate of barbecue in front of Tantalus. The new activities director licked his lips. He looked at his empty goblet and said, "Root beer. Barq's special stock. 1967."**

The campers snickered remembering what would happen.

**The glass filled itself with foamy soda. Tantalus stretched out his hand hesitantly, as if he were afraid the goblet was hot.**

**"Go on, then, old fellow," Dionysus said, a strange sparkle in his eyes. "Perhaps now it will work."**

"Not a chance," someone from the Aphrodite cabin said.

**Tantalus grabbed for the glass, but it scooted away before he could touch it. A few drops of root beer spilled, and Tantalus tried to dab them up with his fingers, but the drops rolled away like quicksilver before he could touch them. He growled and turned toward the plate of barbecue. He picked up a fork and tried to stab a piece of brisket, but the plate skittered down the table and flew off the end, straight into the coals of the brazier.**

Everyone who wasn't there joined in with the laughter.

**"Blast!" Tantalus muttered.**

**"Ah, well," Dionysus said, his voice dripping with false sympathy. "Perhaps a few more days. Believe me, old chap, working at this camp will be torture enough. I'm sure your old curse will fade eventually."**

"Yeah right," everyone shouted.

**"Eventually," muttered Tantalus, staring at Dionysus's Diet Coke. "Do you have any idea how dry one's throat gets after three thousand years?"**

**"You're that spirit from the Fields of Punishment," I said. "The one who stands in the lake with the fruit tree hanging over you, but you can't eat or drink."**

**Tantalus sneered at me. "A real scholar, aren't you, boy?"**

**"You must've done something really horrible when you were alive," I said, mildly impressed. "What was it?"**

"I can't believe you've never heard his story before," Nico said.

"Yeah," Travis said.

"Even we know about it," Connor added.

Percy did the mature thing and stuck out his tongue.

**Tantalus's eyes narrowed. Behind him, the satyrs were shaking their heads vigorously, trying to warn me.**

**"I'll be watching you, Percy Jackson," Tantalus said. "I don't want any problems at my camp."**

**"Your camp has problems already … sir."**

**"Oh, go sit down, Johnson," Dionysus sighed. "I believe that table over there is yours-the one where no one else ever wants to sit."**

Everyone glared at Dionysus. It wasn't Percy's fault he was an only child. (Demigod child that is)

**My face was burning, but I knew better than to talk back. Dionysus was an overgrown brat, but he was an immortal, superpowerful overgrown brat. I said, "Come on, Tyson."**

**"Oh, no," Tantalus said. "The monster stays here. We must decide what to do with it."**

**"Him," I snapped. "His name is Tyson."**

**The new activities director raised an eyebrow.**

**"Tyson saved the camp," I insisted. "He pounded those bronze bulls. Otherwise they would've burned down this whole place."**

**"Yes," Tantalus sighed, "and what a pity that would've been."**

**Dionysus snickered.**

**"Leave us," Tantalus ordered, "while we decide this creature's fate."**

**Tyson looked at me with fear in his one big eye, but I knew I couldn't disobey a direct order from the camp directors. Not openly, anyway.**

**"I'll be right over here, big guy," I promised. "Don't worry. We'll find you a good place to sleep tonight."**

**Tyson nodded. "I believe you. You are my friend."**

**Which made me feel a whole lot guiltier.**

**I trudged over to the Poseidon table and slumped onto the bench. A wood nymph brought me a plate of Olympian olive-and-pepperoni pizza, but I wasn't hungry. I'd been almost killed twice today. I'd managed to end my school year with a complete disaster. Camp Half-Blood was in serious trouble and Chiron had told me not to do anything about it.**

**I didn't feel very thankful, but I took my dinner, as was customary, up to the bronze brazier and scraped part of it into the flames.**

**"Poseidon," I murmured, "accept my offering."**

**And send me some help while you're at it, I prayed silently. Please.**

"I will," Poseidon promised.

No one bothered to tell him that this had already happened.

**The smoke from the burning pizza changed into something fragrant-the smell of a clean sea breeze with wild-flowers mixed in-but I had no idea if that meant my father was really listening.**

**I went back to my seat. I didn't think things could get much worse. But then Tantalus had one of the satyrs blow the conch horn to get our attention for announcements.**

**"Yes, well," Tantalus said, once the talking had died down. "Another fine meal! Or so I am told." As he spoke, he inched his hand toward his refilled dinner plate, as if maybe the food wouldn't notice what he was doing, but it did. It shot away down the table as soon as he got within six inches.**

Cue snickers.

**"And here on my first day of authority," he continued, "I'd like to say what a pleasant form of punishment it is to be here. Over the course of the summer, I hope to torture, er, interact with each and every one of you children. You all look good enough to eat."**

The gods glared at the book. He will not touch their children.

**Dionysus clapped politely, leading to some halfhearted applause from the satyrs. Tyson was still standing at the head table, looking uncomfortable, but every time he tried to scoot out of the limelight, Tantalus pulled him back.**

**"And now some changes!" Tantalus gave the campers a crooked smile. "We are reinstituting the chariot races!"**

**Murmuring broke out at all the tables-excitement, fear, disbelief.**

**"Now I know," Tantalus continued, raising his voice, "that these races were discontinued some years ago due to, ah, technical problems."**

"And those technical problems led to deaths!" Chiron said with a steady voice.

**"Three deaths and twenty-six mutilations," someone at the Apollo table called.**

**"Yes, yes!" Tantalus said. "But I know that you will all join me in welcoming the return of this camp tradition. Golden laurels will go to the winning charioteers each month. Teams may register in the morning! The first race will be held in three days time. We will release you from most of your regular activities to prepare your chariots and choose your horses. Oh, and did I mention, the victorious team's cabin will have no chores for the month in which they win?"**

**An explosion of excited conversation-no KP for a whole month? No stable cleaning? Was he serious?**

**Then the last person I expected to object did so.**

**"But, sir!" Clarisse said. She looked nervous, but she stood up to speak from the Ares table. Some of the campers snickered when they saw the YOU MOO, GIRL! sign on her back. "What about patrol duty? I mean, if we drop everything to ready our chariots-"**

Clarisse glared at everyone again because of the sign.

**"Ah, the hero of the day," Tantalus exclaimed. "Brave Clarisse, who single-handedly bested the bronze bulls!"**

**Clarisse blinked, then blushed. "Um, I didn't-"**

**"And modest, too." Tantalus grinned. "Not to worry, my dear! This is a summer camp. We are here to enjoy ourselves, yes?"**

**"But the tree-"**

**"And now," Tantalus said, as several of Clarisse's cabin mates pulled her back into her seat, "before we proceed to the campfire and sing-a-long, one slight housekeeping issue. Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase have seen fit, for some reason, to bring this here." Tantalus waved a hand toward Tyson.**

**Uneasy murmuring spread among the campers. A lot of sideways looks at me. I wanted to kill Tantalus.**

"We all did at one point," someone said.

**"Now, of course," he said, "Cyclopes have a reputation for being bloodthirsty monsters with a very small brain capacity. Under normal circumstances, I would release this beast into the woods and have you hunt it down with torches and pointed sticks. But who knows? Perhaps this Cyclops is not as horrible as most of its brethren. Until it proves worthy of destruction, we need a place to keep it! I've thought about the stables, but that will make the horses nervous. Hermes's cabin, possibly?"**

**Silence at the Hermes table. Travis and Connor Stoll developed a sudden interest in the tablecloth. I couldn't blame them. The Hermes cabin was always full to bursting. There was no way they could take in a six-foot-three Cyclops.**

"Sorry, Perce," Connor said.

"We just didn't have any room then," Travis added.

"It's fine," Percy replied. "Everything worked out anyways."

**"Come now," Tantalus chided. "The monster may be able to do some menial chores. Any suggestions as to where such a beast should be kenneled?"**

**Suddenly everybody gasped.**

**Tantalus scooted away from Tyson in surprise. All I could do was stare in disbelief at the brilliant green light that was about to change my life-a dazzling holographic image that had appeared above Tyson's head.**

**With a sickening twist in my stomach, I remembered what Annabeth had said about Cyclopes, They're the children of nature spirits and gods … Well, one god in particular, usually …**

**Swirling over Tyson was a glowing green trident-the same symbol that had appeared above me the day Poseidon had claimed me as his son.**

**There was a moment of awed silence.**

**Being claimed was a rare event. Some campers waited in vain for it their whole lives. When I'd been claimed by Poseidon last summer, everyone had reverently knelt. But now, they followed Tantalus's lead, and Tantalus roared with laughter. "Well! I think we know where to put the beast now. By the gods, I can see the family resemblance!"**

**Everybody laughed except Annabeth and a few of my other friends.**

Everyone who laughed then began apologizing immediately, except Drew and some of her 'friends.'

**Tyson didn't seem to notice. He was too mystified, trying to swat the glowing trident that was now fading over his head. He was too innocent to understand how much they were making fun of him, how cruel people were.**

**But I got it.**

**I had a new cabin mate. I had a monster for a half-brother.**

"Done," Grover said.

"Alright, it's time for…" Athena began but everyone headed for the pavilion before she could finish.

* * *

**A/N Hope you liked it! I will be doing a Q&A chapter in the middle of the book. You can ask any question you want about the book, characters, or series. You can put the questions in reviews or PM me. Please, no negative questions. I do get some of those. Thanks for reading!**


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